The City Council, wearing its Transportation Benefit District hat, voted this afternoon to ask voters to approve a sales-tax increase and car-tab fee to raise money to avoid Seattle Metro cuts. The alternate proposal by Councilmembers Nick Licata and Kshama Sawant, for a “head tax” and commercial-parking-tax increase, might be worth taking up in the future, they were told; Sawant retorted that if now isn’t the time for those “progressive” taxes, when is? The sales-tax/tab-fee measure is headed for the November 4th ballot is more or less the same one that lost April’s countywide vote despite winning two-thirds approval within the city limits.

12 Comments

Fares must be raised. More than the token $0.25 ones on the table. The service and system needs to be more self-sustaining.

Using the analogy of the ferry system – yes, the entire state pays a subsidy for the minority group that uses it, but fares pay approx. 66% of operating costs.

There should be an expectation from everyone that are systems be more self sufficient than they are. Metro should increase fares to cover at least half of their operating costs.

Another opportunity to show the management that we, the people are unhappy with the direction they are taking us.
Keep voting “no” until they get the message.
Said this person to the brick wall that is the Seattle Voter….

@Ray I can’t think of a single transit service in the entire world that has half their budget covered by fares off of the top of my head. None. Transit agencies like this aren’t meant to be any more profitable than the police or the library. They’re a public good and public service with wide ranging benefits.

Ray, that is neither fair nor just. You can not in good conscious compare Metro to the Ferry system. People who commute to Seattle via ferry are coming from places with smaller populations of great wealth. Whereas the bus system serves a much larger population – many who live paycheck to paycheck.

So thankful to have Joe and Amanda responding to Ray. Adding even $.25 to each fare will end up costing a daily rider about $100 yearly, out of a potentially small household budget. Asking those with less to pay more is just mean-spirited.

Grateful we get an opportunity to support transit in the city. Frustrating that the prior measure failed thanks to folks in the suburbs. Metro is a great option for getting around. The more people that ride the bus the fewer vehicles are on the road. Supporting Metro benefits everyone…even people driving. Disappointing to see so many people who don’t get that or have an axe to grind.

@Emo and Amanda – How is it fair or just that I should have to pay $100 a year or more to help those who use the system when I don’t use it. The people that ride should first front the cost then if need be go to the people to ask for additional help. Ray is correct and

You guys who said we just voted on this are right… and guess what? It had overwhelming support from Seattle. If you live in Seattle, go vote no, and eat it when this proposition passes. If you don’t live in Seattle, then you can eat it now, cause who cares what your opinion on this measure is?

@AmandaKH: “People who commute to Seattle via ferry are coming from places with smaller populations of great wealth” Really? My family members live on one of the islands and they rely on the ferry each day to commute back and forth to work. They are all struggling just to barely make ends meet and so are most of their neighbors. Be careful when you assume that people who live in the islands are all wealthy. There are more wealthy people in West Seattle than on many of the islands, combined (look up the demographic data). Many island residents are retired, elderly, and on fixed incomes (like my mother) yet have to commute often to the mainland for medical care.

@flimflam — the ballot measure isn’t Metro’s. They are preparing new paper schedules and signage to change the schedules throughout King County beginning in September. Seattle City Council is asking Seattle voters to pay for the Metro service to benefit Seattle commuters, employers, healthcare servers, retailers, etc.
I’m prepared to vote YES for the ballot measure, as regressive as it is. The other ballot measures seeking property measures? Not so much.